Mike Aldrige, who is a member of the CRVA and an active Mudcrab, took some photos of the thousands of bottles deposited onto the foreshore of the Cooks River, following the flash flood on 21st October. These bottles are only a fraction of the many thousands of plastic bottles that would have been washed out to the ocean after this flood.

Mike sent a copy of these photos to the Premier of NSW demanding that the State Government support the introduction of Container Deposit Legislation, as the most effective method of reducing the dumping of bottles into the Cooks River and our other waterways.

Congratulations to Canterbury Council for its great initiative of placing a ‘state of the art’ litter boom in the Cooks River. As can be seen in the above image, the boom appears to be full after just a few days of operation.

The boom has been position adjacent to Boat Harbour, near the Sugar Mill, just below Cup & Saucer Creek. It will be emptied by Sydney Water using a boat. It will be good to assess the difference the boom makes to the floating litter on the River.

A plaque acknowledging the significant contributions of Chris Bartlett to the rehabilitation and re-vegetation of the banks of Cooks River has been erected by Canterbury Council in Rosedale Reserve. This is the place where Chris began his work on the River and where the fledgling Mudcrabs first started to realize Chris’ dream of re-vegetating the banks of the Cooks River with indigenous plants. The plaque is fitting testimony to the vision of an inspirational man who will leave a permanent legacy on the Cooks River.

This boom will catch and trap most of the litter coming down river. It will be emptied regularly by Sydney Water using a boat. It will be very interesting to see how much difference this makes to the blight of floating litter.

It also does not diminish the urgent need for a national Container Deposit Scheme, as nearly 8 billion plastic bottles go to landfill in Australia each year!!